Posts Tagged ‘YANDHI’

Among the many wild headlines that Kanye West managed to generate over the weekend — ones about MAGA hats and boxy costumes, for example — there were none about the release of his ninth studio album, Yandhi. That’s because, as you probably noticed, the project never materialized, despite Ye announcing last week that it would drop the night of his appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Ever the efficient wife/spokesperson, Kim Kardashian West set the record straight on Monday afternoon (October 1) by revealing the album’s new release date: November 23, a.k.a. Black Friday. “TRUST ME it is worth the wait,” she tweeted, followed by a string of fervent emojis.

Kanye later confirmed the date in an interview with TMZ on Monday, during which he also revealed his plan to finish recording the album in Africa. Describing Yandhi, Kanye said, “I started incorporating sounds that you never heard before and pushing and having concepts that people don’t talk about. … It’s just a full Ye album and those five albums I dropped earlier were like superhero rehabilitation and now the alien Ye is fully back in mode.”

The Chicago MC first teased Yandhi last month with a Yeezus-esque piece of artwork. On September 27, he tweeted, “We’re releasing Yandhi Saturday night,” adding, “We know it will come in number 2 to my brother Lil Wayne and that’s lovely. … The universe needs Ye and Wayne music at the same time.”

This will be Kanye’s third album this year, following the solo Ye and his collaboration with Kid Cudi, Kids See Ghosts. Besides those projects, he also produced records for Nas, Pusha T, and Teyana Taylor. It’s clearly been a productive year for Kanye, but given his pro-Trump agenda and mounting backlash, maybe it’s good that Yandhi is being pushed to a time when we can all listen while simultaneously stress-eating leftover turkey and pie.

Early Monday morning (September 17), Kanye West’s Twitter contained two very puzzling items: the word “YANDHI” (written on a Post-It note under Adam Driver’s name, suggesting the two would pair up for an upcoming Saturday Night Live episode), and an image of a bare MiniDisc without any context.

It wasn’t unlike when his 2013 album Yeezus dropped, complete with its artwork of a naked CD with a red sticker on it. Naturally, this caused people to begin speculating that Yeezus 2 was on its way. And then, the details came in — Kanye will indeed perform on SNL on September 29 (with Driver hosting), and that same day, he’ll also launch a project called YANDHI.

Kanye has also changed his social media avatars to a white screen, meaning he could be prepping the beginning of a new era. If YANDHI is indeed a full album, it would be Kanye’s third this year, after Ye, which debuted in June at Kanye’s star-studded Wyoming ranch blowout, and his Kid Cudi collaboaration, Kids See Ghosts. Two weeks ago, Kanye also dropped the new song “I Love It” with Lil Pump, complete with a music video that’s already been parodied for its ridiculousness.

But the news doesn’t stop there! Kanye also took the stage with Chance the Rapper on Monday night to confirm that yes, they are indeed making a joint album together — as they’ve been teasing for weeks now — and it’s called Good Ass Job (a title Kanye’s been teasing for years).

This is a lot to take in, so now’s might be a good time to throw on some music (maybe “Good Ass Intro” or “Ultralight Beam”) and mull it over for a while. And, you know, consider turning on notifications for Kanye’s and Chance’s tweets.